Creating a fare estimate

Optional information – travel options

Time of trip

Additional information can also be added to refine your fare estimate.

If you wish to take your trip at a specified time, the time of trip can be selected by going to Travel options, and nominating a time. If no time is specified, the fare estimate will be calculated based on the current time.

High Occupancy

A High Occupancy tariff is charged if travelling with five or more passengers or if a larger vehicle is required to accommodate extra luggage. To ensure an accurate estimate is returned, select this option if this applies to your trip. See High Occupancy for further details.

Additional stops

If you wish to make additional stops between the Pick up and Going to locations for your estimated trip, these can be entered using Add Stop. There is no limit on the number of Via points that can be added using the web application.

Adding a Via point is done the same way as adding a Pick up or Going to location. See below for entering address, landmarks and train stations or map selection.

One or more Via points can be cleared be clicking the remove button or remove all button.

Entering addresses

An address can be entered as a full address including: House / Building / Unit Number, Street Name and Suburb or Town. The address must be separated by spaces otherwise it cannot be processed.

If a partial address is entered, such as Street and Suburb only or Suburb only, the accuracy of the estimate decrease, as the precise location of the actual starting and end point of your trip will not be known. An approximation along the street or in the centre of the suburb will be used instead.

In some instances, if an address cannot be verified from the input details provided, a pick list of alternative addresses will be returned. Select the address required from this list or begin again and type in a new address.

Entering places of interest or a landmark

A place of interest (also known as a landmark) can include any of the following types of locations:

Sporting venue: MCG

Hospital: Royal Melbourne Hospital

Tourist Attraction: Melbourne Zoo

Park: Treasury Gardens Melbourne

Train Station: Richmond Train Station

To enter either a Point of Interest, or a Train Station select the relevant Tab.

First select the Landmark category, or Suburb of taxi rank or Train Line, then select the location of interest from the available pick list.

An exhaustive list of place names and abbreviations cannot be supplied due to the large number of potential instances. Trial and error may be required to learn which place names are accepted.

Entering a train station

To select a Train station, you must first select a train line. A list of available train stations along that line will then be available to pick from.

Currently only metropolitan train lines and train stations are included.

Using the map to set your taxi trip

Zooming in and out

To zoom in and out on the map, you can use your mouse scroll wheel or you can use the zoom buttons (plus, minus) found in the top left corner of the map – on the grey menu bar.

Panning around the map (moving around)

To pan around the map, use your mouse left click button and drag the map or you can use the pan dial (circle showing the N,E,W, S arrows) found in the top left corner of the map – on the grey menu bar.

You can also close the map menu bar by clicking on the close arrow To re-open, click the open arrow

Adding a point on the map

To add a point of the map for one of the Pick up or Going to or Via points, right click on the exact location on the map. Make sure you have zoomed in sufficiently to set the point as accurately as needed. Once clicked you will be prompted to select which point in the trip this will be:

Pick up

Going to

Via

Clearing points

If you did not place the point exactly where you wanted, you can remove it by hovering the mouse over the point and selecting Remove point when the prompt shows.

You can clear all points at any time (including those added from the estimate fare form) by selecting the Clear all option when right clicking on the map. Tip: To create a fare estimate, you can use any combination of the map and the Estimate Fare form. For example, you could use the map to locate your Pick up from location and the Estimate form to select a landmark for your Going to location.

High Occupancy

A High Occupancy vehicle must be used if travelling with five or more passengers or if a larger vehicle is required to accommodate extra luggage.

A taxi fare is charged at a higher rate for high occupancy, and therefore this option must be selected if the above conditions hold.

The High Occupancy hiring rate does not apply to patrons who use the MPTP or who need a wheelchair accessible taxi.

For more information about the high occupancy hiring rate, please refer to Taxi Fares.

Printing a fare estimate

Print a copy of the fare estimate

To print a copy of the fare estimate to take with you, click on the View and Print Estimate button.

This will open a small window containing the fare estimate information which you can print by selecting the Print Estimate Button.

Print a copy of the fare estimate with a map

The map and fare estimate can be printed by printing the whole page from your internet browser.

Before printing, you must set the background options to print colours, so the fare estimate window will correctly display when printed.